Hello and welcome to another ancient warfare episode of ancient warfare answered.

Murray and I are answering some questions we got from our listeners.

I'll just say listeners because what Murray was saying was a bit long.

I can't remember what he said last time.

Ancient warfare enthusiasts.

Oh yes, ancient warfare answering questions, enthusiasts with words.

Well, one question we got was about female warriors who seemed to have gotten,

seemed to have been around on the steps.

And were there any others?

Murray, can you tell us anything?

Well, obviously, in recent times there's been quite a bit of excitement about archaeological finds,

which seem to show female remains which are associated with weapons.

And obviously, that's got a lot of people excited about female warriors from the steps.

That links in with the idea of Amazon warriors

and of course Pentheselaya from the Iliad and lots of excitement about that. And of course

there are other stories of women warriors, women, you know, manning the walls in Aeneas

Tacticus and things like that.

But there are lots of examples of female warriors and female leaders inspiring their troops which sort of pepper Greek and Roman history,

which is quite fascinating in itself.

Perhaps the most famous example is Artemisia, who fought at

the Battle of Salamis in 480. And of course she also was one of the few, according to Herodotus,

who advised Xerxes that he shouldn't fight the Battle of Salamis. And then, of course, he did fight the Battle of Salamis.

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